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Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan attends the BRICS+ session on a two-day BRICS international ministers summit held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia on June 11, 2024.
Sefa Karacan | Anadolu | Getty Pictures
Turkey’s request to affix the BRICS alliance is a transfer seen as each strategic and symbolic because the Eurasian nation of 85 million makes rising strides in its affect and leverage on the worldwide stage.
“Our president has already expressed a number of occasions that we want to grow to be a member of BRICS,” a spokesperson for Turkey’s main AK Occasion advised journalists earlier in September. “Our request on this matter is evident, and the method is continuing inside this framework.”
BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a gaggle of rising market international locations that search to deepen their financial ties. This yr, it gained 4 new members: Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE.
It is also seen as a counterweight to Western-led organizations just like the EU, the G7 and even NATO, though it lacks formal construction, enforcement mechanisms, and uniform guidelines and requirements.
For Turkey, a longtime Western ally and NATO member since 1952, the transfer to affix BRICS is “according to its broader geopolitical journey: positioning itself as an impartial actor in a multi-polar world and even changing into a pole of energy in its personal proper,” George Dyson, a senior analyst at Management Dangers, advised CNBC.
“This isn’t to say that Turkey is popping away from the West completely,” Dyson added, “however Turkey needs to foster as many buying and selling ties as attainable and pursue alternatives unilaterally with out being constrained by Western alignment. It’s positively symbolic in that Turkey is demonstrating precisely this — that it isn’t constrained by its good ties with the West.”
Diversifying alliances
Regardless of a long time of being aligned with Europe and the U.S., Turkey has confronted constant rejection from becoming a member of the EU, which has lengthy been a sore spot for Ankara.
Ambassador Matthew Bryza, a former White Home and Senior State Division official presently based mostly in Istanbul, mentioned that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his authorities “appear to be motivated largely by two components: A strategic custom of securing nationwide pursuits… and a need to spook the West a bit, each out of emotional spite and as a negotiating tactic to extract concessions.”
CNBC has contacted the Turkish presidency’s workplace for remark.
Turkey has in the previous couple of years expanded its role in global diplomacy, brokering prisoner swap offers and main different negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, as an example, whereas additionally mending beforehand strained relations with regional powers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most just lately, Egypt.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes fingers with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan throughout their joint press convention on September 4, 2023, in Sochi, Russia.
Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
Ankara additionally refuses to partake in sanctions in opposition to Russia — a stance that irks its Western allies however helps it keep an impartial place as a so-called “middle power,” which it sees as helpful to its relationships with China and the World South.
To that finish, “any new BRICS member is clearly desirous to benefit from stronger ‘togetherness’ of rising economies with a purpose to cut back dependency on developed economies, primarily america,” mentioned Arda Tunca, an impartial economist and guide based mostly in Turkey.
Standing as much as the West?
Tunca famous, nevertheless, that Turkey’s distinctive place on this planet is a “delicate dialogue level” because the nation has “severe political issues with the EU and america” regardless of its western alliances.
Turkey’s governing celebration, which has run the nation for 22 years, is “ideologically nearer to the East than the West,” Tunca mentioned. “Turkey needed to hop on the BRICS prepare earlier than it was late. It’s too early to say that the BRICS can grow to be an alternative choice to the West, however the intention is clearly to face up in opposition to the West below the management of China.”
Importantly, being a part of BRICS permits its members to commerce in currencies aside from {dollars}. This goals to scale back dependency on the U.S.-led system and usher in a extra multi-polar world. The truth that it is led by China makes some within the West cautious, who see this as a possible win for Beijing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (not seen) is welcomed by Chinese language President Xi Jinping as a part of the eleventh G20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, on September 3, 2016.
Mehmet Ali Ozcan | Anadolu Company | Getty Pictures
“I do not assume there’s any enforcement of their [BRICS’] choices, it is extra of a geopolitical factor, kind of a symbolic counter to the G7,” Dyson mentioned. He additionally famous: “It is attention-grabbing that Iran and UAE are each in it. It’s kind of just like the anti-West crew.”
Erdogan has spoken of his need to affix BRICS since at the least 2018, however the subject was by no means formalized. In June, Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan visited each China and Russia, the latter for a BRICS+ summit, throughout which Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned he “welcomed” Turkey’s curiosity in becoming a member of the bloc.
On the time, the then-U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Jeff Flake, mentioned in an interview that he hoped Turkey wouldn’t join the group, however added that he didn’t assume it might negatively impression Turkey’s alignment with the West.
